Hockey's Generation Gap

Why Are The Players Of Today Smiling? Because They Can

As the Blackhawks travel to St. Louis for their third playoff game against the Blues on Friday, it's time to consider a part of the game that receives scant attention. Namely, the dental aspect.

First, do you associate professional hockey players with gap-toothed grins and grimaces? Like the picture of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita with this article? Do you assume that losing your front teeth is the price you pay to play in the National Hockey League?

If so, you're out of touch.

It's not just that today's player no longer leaves his dentures in his locker when he takes the ice, it's that he's capable of matching smiles with the toothiest Hollywood starlet, whether he's on or off the ice. He may even have more of his original pearly whites than she has of hers.

Which is to say that as far as dental care is concerned, hockey has changed dramatically.

This comes from someone with inside (the mouth) information, Dr. Robert Duresa, the dentist for the Chicago Blackhawks, who offers a perspective of the sport you won't get from coaches or players.

"I'm not seeing nearly as many missing teeth as I did when I started 12 years ago," says the Northwest Side native. "I'd guess maybe only 25 percent of the younger players are missing teeth."

The improvement, he says, is a result of advanced dental techniques and, more important, strict safety measures for organized youth hockey in Canada and the U.S., where full facial shields and mouth guards are required.

Typical of the new look is Hawks star Chris Chelios, photographed here with Duresa after a recent practice.

Chris has a nice smile, doesn't he? Only one tooth is not the real thing. He lost the original playing hockey at 18. A stick in the chops. It happens. The replacement is permanent. It's the upper left lateral incisor, Duresa notes, next to the midline. Hard to tell, isn't it?

"The older generation of (NHL) players were raised in a different system," Duresa says. "They wore no face guards or mouth guards when they were young, and they ended up with lots of teeth missing. Most had partial dentures. They wore them for show and removed them for a game."

Which made matters worse. "These appliances (partial dentures) left sharp edges of teeth in the mouth so that when you were bumped, you'd bleed. The rule today is fixed bridgework or bonded teeth. We can do so much more now."

At the moment, Duresa is standing in the hallway outside the Blackhawks dressing room in the dank basement of charmingly decrepit Chicago Stadium, which is said to have been built in 1929 but appears to be several centuries old.

A reporter is observing his routine during one of the last games of the regular season, a clash with the archrival Detroit Red Wings. It will prove to be the most pleasant visit to a dentist the reporter has ever experienced.

Although he's at virtually every home game, watching on TV in a basement room, he's usually about as busy as a parka salesman in Acapulco.

"I've been the team dentist since 1980, and in two or three seasons, I've had no injuries at all. This year, I've had only three. None were major, and two were relatively minor. Both of those were chipped teeth."

Avoiding injury is often a function of skill. "By the time the players get to this level, they've learned to duck," Duresa says. "You'll still get the inadvertent puck or stick in the mouth, but for the most part players are smart enough and quick enough to avoid getting hit."

When an injury occurs?

"Usually I apply first aid that will allow the player to continue the game. We may apply a local anesthetic similar to Novocain to make him comfortable until we can treat him at the office after the game if it's serious."

A sudden burst of shouting interrupts Duresa's discourse.

"Let's go! Let's go!"

"Let's work!"

The Blackhawks are leaving their dressing room and climbing the stairs to the rink for their pregame skate.

Duresa is joined in the hall by the two team physicians, Dr. Louis Kolb and Dr. Howard Baim. Kolb is an orthopedic surgeon and expert in fractures, and Baim specializes in head and neck surgery, facial plastic surgery and problems with the ear, nose and throat, medical areas of interest that come in handy with hockey.

"This could be a very combative game," Baim says.

"I think we'll see some fights," Duresa says.

"You can always expect something with Probert," Kolb says.

The `enforcer's' mouth

Bob Probert, they explain, is Detroit's "enforcer," whose job is to intimidate through extreme roughness. You note that Probert is a throwback to the old days when he opens his mouth, sporting the picketless picket-fence look.

Duresa leads his visitor to the Hawks' TV room, which is the size of a large closet and packed with numerous TV screens and VCRs. Mark Cherney, the Hawks' TV technician, is taping the game, using the Hawks' own in-house cameras and commercial-TV cameras.